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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Today was the Fall meeting of the Genealogical Society ofVermont (GSV),
which took place in Rutland, Vermont.I
joined the Society last year, but wasn’t able to make it to the Spring meeting,
so this was my first exposure to the group outside of reading the newsletters
and a couple of interactions with the Facebook group.

I was very pleased with the meeting.There were just under 30 people in
attendance, most of who seemed to have known each other for some time.Despite being a newcomer, I didn’t feel unwelcome
at all.I chatted with a few people, and
found some common research interests.The highlight of the meeting, however, was definitely the three
presentations that were given.

The first speaker, William Powers, Jr., gave numerous
examples of the importance of finding several sources of documentation before coming
to a conclusion.Cases ranged from
incorrect tombstone inscriptions to census records with similar, but not
correct names.The presentation was
entertaining, and the speaker was excellent.

Michael Dwyer gave the next presentation, which was a
summary of his search for third great-grandmother’s husband, Silas Hall.Again, the speaker was entertaining and the
information interesting.He showed how
some ancestors “flavored” their stories, sometimes making them more difficult
to track down.In some cases the
flavoring may be an innocent embellishment of facts.In other cases, such as Silas Hall, the
flavoring may be more purposeful (such as having three wives).

The final presentation, given by Jim Davidson of the Rutland
Historical Society was my favorite.Mr.
Davidson outlined numerous sources available for information on the Rutland
area, beginning with the late 18th century and working up to the
early 20th century.Many of
the sources have been put online by the Historical Society, or are available either
at the Historical Society building or the Rutland Free Library.Since my wife’s family is from the Rutland
area, I now have several new options to check out for information.

After attending this meeting, I’m looking forward to
attending more next year and possibly becoming more involved with the Society
as I get to know the organization more.

Friday, October 4, 2013

I don’t have many baby pictures of myself.I know I’ve seen a few, but somehow they
haven’t come into my possession.The
photo shown here is of my family, about 5 months after my birth.We’re standing in front of my grandmother’s
house, which was just below the house that my parents built when my sister was
small.Based on this photo, I’d say that
I was a pretty typical bald little infant.

The start of my life, however, based on what I’ve been told,
wasn’t boring.First, my mother, due to
a medical condition, wasn’t supposed to have any children after my
brother.Not only did she give birth to
me, she lived long enough to see me graduate from college.Next, I arrived a month earlier than
expected.My mother always told me that
I didn’t want to miss 1972.Being a
month premature, I was transported from the hospital in Springfield, VT to what
is now Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where I spent my first few days in an
incubator.

Everything must have turned out well.At some point, I’m guessing before Christmas,
my parents brought me home.Since I was
a near Christmas baby, they brought me home in a stocking.I remember my mother showing me the stocking
one time when I was a kid, but I’m not sure what happened to it.The stocking, apparently, was a gift from the
hospital to all of the December babies.

The best story from my birth?I have a small flat spot on the end of my
nose, roughly the size of a fingertip.My mother used to tease me by telling me that I when I was born the
doctor put his finger on my nose and said “Awww…He’s sooo cute!” and my nose stuck that way
forever.The story may have been a
fiction, but my flat-tipped nose always makes me smile and think of mom.

A few years ago I traded a friend of mine some maple syrup for a box of Walton's Vermont Register books from
the late 1800s. The original owner of the registers kept daily notes in
the front of them. It was obvious that he was a farmer, and that he
lived near where I grew up, based on some of his entries. There were
mentions of "Went to S. Derry", "Went to Weston", "Went to Landgrove". I
always thought it would be neat if he had been from Peru (where I grew
up), but I never really thought much more about it.

Tonight, I
started reading through the entries of the 1898 edition. In addition to
place names, the names "S. Stiles" and "Simmonds" were frequently
mentioned. Stiles and Simmonds were families in Peru way back when. I
kept looking through the entries, till I got to October 31st. The entry
was "Edmond Batchelder died." Edmund Batchelder was my
great-grandfather's name, though he didn't die until the 1930s. I
flipped the page. November 2nd, "Edmond Batchelder buried." November
3rd, "Fannie Cross buried."

Fannie Cross was my
great-grandfather's first wife. I'd never found a death date for her. I
checked FamilySearch for the date and place, and sure enough, there she
was. Fannie Cross, wife of Edmund Batchelder died from "Shock after
child birth" on 1 November, 1898. I checked my database. I had an
unnamed baby girl, stillborn to Edmund and Fannie on 1 November, 1898.
It appears that the unnamed baby girl may actually have been a boy,
named after his father, and born late on October 31st or early on
November 1st. Unfortunately mother and child didn't survive.

I've heard of ancestors finding us instead of us finding them, but I've
never had it happen before. Not only did the writer of the daily
entries live in Peru, he knew my great-grandfather's family. Weird how a
penciled entry by someone who knew my great-grandfather found it's way
out of Vermont, down to Connecticut to a friend of mine, then to me,
taking 100+ years to travel.

About Me

As a sixth-generation Vermonter living in the same area as my ancestors, I have a great interest in family and local history. This interest has led me further and further into the field of genealogy, which I have pursued as a hobby for the last twenty-five to thirty years. In the past few years I have begun learning more disciplined approaches to the field, and have started revisiting the ancestors that I gathered during my name-collecting days.